The Master’s Recital recorded on the compact disc that accompanies this paper presents seven compositions. Five of them are my own, and two are my arrangements of compositions by musicians that I admire. The paper includes scores of the original compositions and arrangements, as well as program notes that offer historical background, summaries of the form, and observations on performance practice for each selection. My goal is to demonstrate to jazz devotees and to music lovers in general the capabilities of the steel pan instrument within a jazz combo setting. Each composition exploits the full range of challenges the percussionist faces in a jazz combo performance. I explore different stylistic approaches and musical concepts that enable a high level of improvised musical performance on an instrument that is relatively new to jazz.

The aim of this dissertation is to explore improvising on the double bass through
an investigation of the improvised solos of prominent jazz saxophonists. This involves a melodically focused analysis of solos of Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Oliver Nelson and Eric Dolphy. My melodic analysis is in aid of furthering my melodic concept on the double bass and consists largely of analysis in three areas: intervallic content, phrasing and melodic devices. It is through this process that I hope to develop techniques for the double bass and further my own concept for improvising. The disparity
between saxophone and the double bass means that there is much to be gained from transferring ideas from each instrument. There are differences in dexterity, phrasing abilities and acoustics that have allowed the saxophone to develop an improvising style entirely different to that of many double bassists. While saxophonists I enjoy, solo in an exciting and complex way, my soloing on the double bass is generally slower, less melodic and lacking in intensity and concept. I believe that this study can give great insights into my playing as well as creating a model which may be used by others to develop their own
improvising on the double bass.; Yes

Despite a widely held view that serialism is incompatible with jazz improvisation, there are many instances of jazz musicians successfully engaging with this concept. This conflict seems likely to have arisen from differing interpretations of ‘serialism’; however, the question of how a jazz improviser’s approach to serialism might, or perhaps should, differ from a classical composer’s, has been left unasked. In addition, most attempts at the use of serialism within improvisation remain undocumented by the musicians concerned. The chord stranding techniques of Lutoslawski are less well known and less controversial than serialism. Connections between Lutoslawski’s twelve-note chords and traditional twelve-note rows are obvious, as are connections between the concept of harmonic ‘strands’ and the jazz harmonic device of superimposition. The possibilities for use of Lutoslawski’s ideas within a jazz context are interesting and worthy of consideration.
This research project involves the composition and performance of jazz pieces applying serialism and chord stranding, as well as the exploration of precedents for these ideas within the jazz tradition. The four CD recordings within this thesis present the initial development of these concepts (CDs 1 and 2); an exploration of serialism in the music of John Coltrane (CD 3); and an album of original material demonstrating the integrated application of these concepts (CD 4). The exegesis describes the broader context of this project and examines the relevant music theory concepts. It uses analysis of transcriptions to show the specific application of techniques.
The key outcomes from this research are (i) the development and (ii) the demonstration of techniques for pitch organisation based on serialism and chord stranding that are appropriate for jazz improvisation. The recordings and exegesis show the successful integration of these techniques with existing melodic and harmonic ideas familiar to jazz musicians. It is argued that the approach to jazz improvisation explored within this research represents a novel and radical reinterpretation of the traditional concept of serialism and that this approach is helpful when considering the effective use of serialism in a jazz context. From a broader perspective...

Moving beyond Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream amalgamation of classical and jazz, this study explores whether the musical language of Olivier Messiaen can make a valid contribution to jazz piano performance. Initially, my project sought to answer such questions as: What elements of the musical language of Messiaen already exist in the jazz vocabulary? Am I able to extend this further? What are the timbral structures and pianistic effects within Messiaen’s musical language? What will be the most effective application of Messiaen’s musical language to jazz piano performance? Endeavouring to answer the final question led me to consider such aspects as whether the project should be limited to quoting Messiaen motifs, arranging Messiaen melodies, replacing jazz harmonic structures on standards with examples from Messiaen’s musical language or whether it would be better to approach the research conceptually. The work of Hubert Nuss provided encouraging reassurance that this was not an impossible task. In order to articulate this conception, the initial challenge was to decide how the classical and jazz worlds might meet in a ‘Messiaen’ technique. The approach adopted was similar to that used for undergraduate jazz study, namely...

Each discipline has its own way of representing and evaluating knowledge which is reflected in its discourse. Success for students involves appropriately adopting this discourse in order to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge and the internalisation of both values and forms of valuing. In creative disciplines such as music performance, written tasks are not the main form of assessment but are often required; little research however has been conducted into writing about music. This study represents an analysis of writing about music. This thesis investigates musical discourse by taking a cohort of six local students of Jazz Performance. Its corpus is formed by the 5000-word research projects each student wrote as part of their Honours year. The thesis focuses on three aspects of musical discourse in the corpus: the multisemiotic representation of jazz through the use and incorporation of music notation, the evaluation of jazz through evaluative language, and the legitimation of jazz through the positioning of knowers. Music notation is considered as part of a social semiotic system and its selection, repurposing and integration into the texts is analysed. The elaboration of the notation through the accompanying linguistic text is also examined to consider how information is variously unpacked and repacked from the notation to enable greater abstraction and generalisation and how the examples are grounded in the performances they come from. The examination of evaluative language reveals underlying priorities in the performance of jazz and in particular how the focal musicians of the research projects are established as worthy of research. The representation and structuring of knowers is held to be particularly important in jazz performance; this is investigated with particular focus on the student writers as well as the focal musicians to reveal the legitimation of jazz performance. The representation with notation and the legitimation with esteemed knowers together demonstrate the jazz understanding which underlies student research into jazz performance.; Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide...

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the practices and opinions of high school band directors regarding the teaching of beginning improvisation in jazz ensemble rehearsal. The secondary purpose was to outline a curriculum for teaching beginning jazz improvisation in said rehearsals. Participants (N = 57) for the Instrumental Jazz Improvisation Instruction Questionnaire were Indiana high school band directors. Regarding whether or not improvisation should be taught in a large jazz ensemble setting, an overwhelming majority (93%) of respondents felt that the skill should be taught in rehearsal. Concerning an appropriate amount of jazz ensemble rehearsal time to dedicate to improvisation, the largest percentage (42%) selected was 11-16 minutes. However, at the time the IJIIQ was distributed, the largest percentage of directors (46%) allotted only 5-10 minutes. Regarding what to include in a beginning jazz improvisation curriculum, the highest rated item, considered "extremely important," was listening to expert recordings. Other items considered "very important" were chord-scale relationships, ear training, aural imitation, call and response, melodic embellishment, guide tones, and melodic devices. Concerning what is most difficult about learning to improvise...

In jazz circles, someone with "big ears" is an expert listener, one who hears the complexity and nuance of jazz music. Listening, then, figures prominently in the imaginations of jazz musicians and aficionados. While jazz scholarship has acknowledged the discourse on listening within various jazz cultures, to date the actual listening practices of jazz musicians and listeners remain under-theorized. This dissertation investigates listening and aural experience in a New York City community devoted to avant-garde jazz. I situate this community within the local history of Manhattan's Lower East Side, discuss the effects of changing neighborhood politics on music performance venues, and analyze social interactions in this scene, to give an exposition of "listening to music" as a practice deeply tied into other aspects of my interlocutors' lives. I engage with cultural anthropology, urban sociology, and media studies, applying insights from those fields while engaging perennial concerns and topics of jazz scholarship: the nature of musical improvisation, and relatedly, the dynamics of listening and aural perception, as well as the complex, changing, but continuing relationship between African American cultural practices and jazz.

This project makes several contributions to the ethnomusicology of listening and to jazz studies. First...